Anxiety Support Group

Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...

help :(

I get so worked up when i'm out in public, i feel dizzy and i can hardly breathe. It's tearing my life apart!
I can't even go to school and i'm really really worried.
I'm graduation this year, and if i can't keep up with my studies i doubt i will be able to. I don't have support from my family and therapists don't seem to help me much. My family ignores my anxiety and treats it like normal worries, when really its nothing close to normal worries.
I always have the urge to cut, i've done it 4 times in the past, and it hurts but for that moment it's like all my worries go away..? does anyone do the same? or does anyone have any suggestions on how i can stop cutting .. before my family finds out?

hey, i understand how you are feeling. anxiety can really screw with your life and is isolating how people compare it to normal anxiety. maybe it is best your family do find out about you cutting, you probably need the support. I found the best thing for me is to stop trying to fight and run away from the feelings, accept them for what they are and let them pass - once you stop fearing them, they will not happen.

I know with Ipods etc. it's a bit outdated to be
using a record analogy here but it works well to
illustrate a key point about anxious thoughts.

Remember when a record got scratched it made
a very unpleasant sound and caused the needle to
get stuck on the same groove.

The same one line would play over and over again
ad nauseam until you picked up the needle and moved
it past the scratch.

Anxious thoughts are bit like this. You might be
happily going about your day and then something
triggers an anxious thought.

The worry the thought creates sends an unpleasant
shock wave through your nervous system. (The scratch on the record).
Then once you start reacting to the anxious thought it is
hard to stop thinking about it over and over again.
(The needle stuck in a groove)

The repetitive anxious thought can last minutes,
hours , days depending on how upset you become
by the thought.

Here is the advice given to me a while ago:

1, Observe
2, Trust
3, Move

Observe the anxious thought and label it. Say

&quot;Oh there is fear X again, imagine that&quot;

Try your very best to not get sucked into reacting
emotionally to the thought.

Then

Trust that what you are worrying about will in all
probability never come about. Almost all the anxious
thoughts we have are a complete waste of our energy.
Trust that things will work out fine.

Joseph Cossman said &quot;If you want to test your memory,
try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.&quot;

If you are religious/spiritual then hand your anxious
thought over to a higher power. Trust that there is nothing
to fear and you will be looked after.

Lastly,

Move your attention elsewhere. Focus on something
positive that takes your mind out of the anxious groove.
Replace the anxious thought with a positive thought.

You are not trying to suppress the anxious thought, you
are simply moving your attention elsewhere. To continue
the record analogy, you pick the record needle up
(your attention) and move it out of the groove it was caught in.

If you are engaged in an activity then move your attention
fully there. Be 100% present in the moment. If you are walking
focus on the surroundings, if you are driving observe
all the sights and sounds. If you are with someone focus
all your attention on them.

By moving your attention into the present moment there is
no room for anxious thoughts to dominate your mind.

Play around with both moving your attention to positive
thoughts or into the present moment. Different people find
one or the other is easier to accomplish. The key thing is
to move your mind out of the anxious groove and put
you back in your natural flow.

the urge to cut is sometimes assosiated with post traumatic stress disorder.reaching out the way you feel most comfortable,like this site is an excellent start.educate yourself about any possible diagnossis you may have already had.do not try to diagnos yourself.I have PTSD,bipolar,and panic disorder.I have a history of loss and terrible things in my life,starting from infancy.i cut from ages 14-18.it felt like a release but in reality its another burden.something to hide,to feel bad about.it can create further lonliness.my best suggestion is to always reach out,relize some people do care.the world is full of millions of people and burdens.i dont believe any one person has ever had a one of a kind problem.there are others out there who are willing to understand and lend you an ear.dont shoulder this alone,you deserve understanding.make sure you find it for yourself.good luck finding your answers.

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Today is my 25th birthday, to my somewhat lack of surprise I can see already no one really seems to care. I've always been the kinda person to make sure that everyone I Care about feels appreciated and knew somebody had their back. I can count 4 times this year when I Went out of my way to make sure a "friend" felt good on their birthday, especially if they got left hanging. Its early in the...

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